


Reynir and the Ghosts

by lwise2019



Series: Mikkel's Story [39]
Category: Stand Still Stay Silent
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-26
Updated: 2020-04-26
Packaged: 2021-03-02 00:34:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,096
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23856163
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lwise2019/pseuds/lwise2019
Summary: Mikkel learns about the ghosts.
Series: Mikkel's Story [39]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1536739
Comments: 1
Kudos: 9





	Reynir and the Ghosts

Having officially relieved Sigrun, Mikkel quietly prowled around the tank, every sense alert. He could see, though only for a short distance, as the perimeter lights, normally kept off at night so as not to attract grosslings, were set very dim and red in the profound night of the dark of the moon. His sharp ears caught the sound of small things moving in the underbrush and he raised his crowbar, ready for battle, but they scuttled away. Normal animals, then, and harmless.

Faint and far off, he heard the howl of a wolf and the answer of another. Once, a man alone in the darkness, hearing those howls, would have feared them. Mikkel found comfort in them. Fellow mammals, alive here in grossling-haunted Denmark, were a sign that the world was not lost.

Not yet at least.

And, of course, that thought brought him back to the battle, and Tuuri. He'd meant what he said to Sigrun, and he knew in his head that feelings of guilt were unwarranted and would only make his job more difficult. Nevertheless, he could not shake the sense of guilt even as he repeated to himself what Christer had told him long before.

> Viktor Nordin was dead. Mikkel had been fighting the troll to his right, and a troll had slipped by to his left. He had turned too slowly, struck too late, and Viktor was fatally slashed across the throat. Mikkel killed that troll, and the next troll, and so many more, but he couldn't bring Viktor back.
> 
> After the battle, Mikkel sat lost and silent on his cot, asking himself over and over why he hadn't turned sooner, why he hadn't seen the thing approaching …
> 
> Christer sat down beside him. “Blaming yourself?”
> 
> “My mistake.”
> 
> “No. In a battle, you can't see everything at once, you can't fight everywhere at once, you can't save everyone. If you'd seen the troll heading for Viktor, maybe you wouldn't have seen the troll headed for you. Maybe you'd both have died, or maybe we'd all have died, who knows? No one knows. No one _can_ know. All you can do in battle, is do your best. And you did that.”
> 
> It helped, a little, but Viktor's eyes – bewildered, beseeching – still accused him in his dreams. A week later, Christer died too, and his agonized face joined the parade of nightmares.  
> 

Mikkel turned away from the memories, looked out into the darkness to the south, hoped just a little for a grossling that he could actually fight … but there was nothing. He continued his patrol.

* * *

Dawn was just beginning to break as Emil came out, yawning. Seeing Mikkel, he hurried over as if to speak, but then hesitated.

“What's on your mind?”

“Well … ah … we're reasonable men, you and I … but what happened …”

Mikkel waited patiently.

“I don't … I don't understand. I don't know what to think. The firebird – Kokko, she called it? – that was magic. But magic … isn't real. I've always believed it isn't real … only it _is_ real. I _saw_ it. Mikkel, what am I supposed to do? Should I be putting out offerings for the Good Folk? Throwing salt over my shoulder? Drawing pictures like Reynir?” He gestured toward the tank and, in the dim light of morning, Mikkel saw runes drawn in charcoal. “Who or, or, _what_ should I thank for Kokko saving us? Should I be making sacrifices to Kokko? Or to Odin? If magic is real, are all the gods real and all the superstitions _true?_ ”

“I don't know about gods, but I certainly don't believe that _all_ the superstitions can be true. And don't waste any of my salt; that was hard to come by. I _can_ tell you whom to thank for Kokko: Onni sent it.”

“Onni …” The younger man was clearly trying to place Onni in his dimly-remembered pantheon.

“Tuuri's brother.” At the other's doubtful look he went on, “when Lalli collapsed, Tuuri told me he'd overexerted his mage abilities. Onni's supposed to be a mage too, and that night when Kokko came, he collapsed. That can't be a coincidence. He sent Kokko to us.”

After a thoughtful pause, Emil responded, “I suppose it's good to know that that … entity … was sent by a human. Better than thinking that gods took action, I guess. I mean, if gods helped us then we'd … have to do something … I don't know.”

Mikkel resisted the urge to pat him on the head consolingly. He had no real idea what to think either, except that magic was real and Onni was a powerful mage. Therefore Lalli and Reynir were mages as well, and therefore …

He turned to look again at the symbols drawn on the tank, comparing them mentally to the scrap of paper which Reynir had given him as protection against ghosts. Similar, but not quite the same, he thought. Was Reynir still attempting to protect them against ghosts? Or against grosslings?

“I think I'd better let Reynir out before Tuuri comes out,” he said finally and, suiting actions to words, headed to the back compartment.

Reynir had the back door open and was watching for him with a worried expression. “Is it all right for me to come out? Is … everyone okay?”

“Yes, yes. Come along now.” As they headed for the latrine, “Did you think something might have happened?”

“Well, the ghosts … I was afraid the runes might not entirely protect us.”

Mikkel firmly squelched a lifetime of skepticism. “Why so? You drew them last night.”

“I did but …”

“You need to explain this to me. I need to understand what's going on with the ghosts.”

“I thought you don't believe in ghosts.”

“I _don't_ believe. I _accept_ , on the basis of clear evidence, that there are … entities that you and Lalli can see, that the rest of us can't see, but that are capable of harming us. You call them 'ghosts' so we'll use that word. If we've run into more of them, I need to understand what's going on. And especially how we can fight them.”

“I don't think we _can_ fight them. At least I can't.”

“All right, look, take care of business and we'll go back to your quarters, and you'll tell me the whole story.”

> It started in Kastellet – well, no, it was before Kastellet, when I saw the ghosts in that first place, the plaza. That night I dreamed … it was the kind of dream that I've started having here. It was like home, and there were sheep … and there was the dog.
> 
> The dog wanted me to follow so I did and he took me to the tank. I turned around and the ghosts were there; they attacked me – it was so scary – and I woke up. 
> 
> Then you went to Kastellet and we followed. When you went into that building, I saw _them_. They were ghosts like the first ones but so angry and hate-filled. They were reaching for you, but you were in the sunlight; they couldn't quite touch you, but I was so afraid that you would go farther in …
> 
> Anyway, that evening I saw them coming through the shadows just like in the dream and, well, you know all that.
> 
> We got away and I thought it was all over. Except … after a while I started having that feeling you have, you know, like someone's looking at you, and it kept nagging at me, just a little more every day. It was during the blizzard that I realized what it was: the ghosts were following us. I think they have trouble crossing running water – that's what the stories say, anyway – so I guess that slowed them down a lot. That's when I came up with that first rune but it didn't work very well.
> 
> Um, I found that out later.
> 
> Anyway, after we raided the antique shop I had another dream. My dog led me to this old temple and I got Onni to come with me because I thought it might be dangerous alone. But it wasn't dangerous at all. It was all full of light, and there was this nice old priestess lady there. She said she was dead but she was waiting for someone, waiting to lead them on to where they should go. The afterlife, I mean. So she can help me with the ghosts if, well, if I can find her. I've been watching for her temple but I haven't seen anything like it. I'm sure if we got close to it, then I'd know but we haven't …
> 
> Right, the ghosts. I felt they were getting closer and closer, but crossing the big bridge slowed them down more than us. Then we got to the hospital, and Lalli said there were ghosts in there, but when he tried to use my rune, it just caught fire. And Emil's rune was in his pocket and _it_ caught fire too!
> 
> Oh, yeah, I forgot you'd know about that. Of course you'll be fixing it. But it wasn't his fault at all.
> 
> Anyway, then we camped and we had to move and all. Lalli dragged me out – it wasn't my idea to be out there, really! – and he wanted me to draw runes, so I did, all around the tank. They'd catch fire if the ghosts tried to cross, and it seems like light and fire keep them back so that would help even if the runes didn't really drive them away.
> 
> Trolls? No, the runes wouldn't catch fire if trolls touched them. Only ghosts. But once they were burning, they'd burn trolls too, I guess.
> 
> Lalli was so scared that I thought you guys wouldn't be able to stop them, and then you couldn't fight the ghosts anyway, so I tried to warn Onni we were in danger. By magic, I mean. I couldn't tell if that worked, except he must have sent the firebird, so it did.
> 
> During the battle, I … felt … the ghosts from Kastellet. It's like … it's like when you hear someone's footsteps, and you know who it is even though you can't see them. I know the ghosts from Kastellet were there. Maybe others too. But all the fighting and then the firebird must have driven them off.
> 
> Then yesterday Lalli gave me a bunch of paper and a pencil, and he had this little drawing of what he wanted. It wasn't real clear except he'd drawn this fire with a big X through it, so I reckoned he wanted a rune against ghosts that wouldn't catch fire. I mean, the rune wouldn't catch fire. So I drew a bunch of runes as best I could, and he took them away. He came back with just one and gave me a charred stick, so I drew that one on the doors to keep the ghosts away.
> 
> But then last night, the ghosts … spoke to me. They said the rune wouldn't protect us forever and they'd take everyone around me and follow me forever … I won't be able to go home …
> 
> I tried to find the old priestess lady but I couldn't, and Onni said he couldn't help either, and I don't know what to do …
> 
> So here we are and that's what's happened with the ghosts and that's why I was worried about you guys.  
> 

* * *

Leaving Reynir in his quarters, Mikkel set to work preparing breakfast, but his mind was far away.

_Magic is real, mages are real, and Reynir … Reynir knew the ghosts were about to attack. I have to believe that Reynir **is** a mage, and that his perceptions are valid. He says his runes wouldn't respond to trolls, but I **saw** a fire flare up beyond Emil's perimeter._

He checked his memory of the location of Reynir's runes and the location of that first fire. Yes, to the best of his ability, he could confirm that the fire had corresponded to a rune.

_There was no grossling close to that fire. I didn't think about it then, with grosslings flooding in on all sides, but there certainly was no grossling there. But then … that means there was a ghost there. Ghosts **with** the grosslings. Ghosts that followed us all the way from … Kastellet._

_Ghosts that **I** stirred up in Kastellet! **I!**_ Quite suddenly his mind made one of those intuitive connections that had made him so valuable to the General.

_The grosslings didn't follow us. The **ghosts** followed us and drove the grosslings before them._

_The ghosts that **I** stirred up in Kastellet drove the grosslings to attack us and to infect Tuuri._


End file.
